Jewel Box

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Hello all...

Jewel Box cluster in Crux.
Did this as a request from a northern hemisphere brother on astro-chat.uk, they're jealous of our amazing skies

20 x 30 sec unguided exposures @ iso800 (imaged under a bright moon)
ED80, Skywatcher Synscan EQ5, Canon 40D

Stacked in ImagesPlus, processed in PS.

All the best

Doug

[iceman (Mike)]

Ripper, Doug. I've been waiting to image this for ages and haven't had a chance yet. It's one of my favourite open clusters!

Did you use fishing line or post-processing to add the spikes?

How cropped is the image?

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by iceman

Did you use fishing line or post-processing to add the spikes?

How cropped is the image?

Nah Mike, Cheated with Noel's PS actions (Spikes on Fat Stars)!!
Cropped to remove stars with field curvature - so quite a bit!!!
Roll on the WO reducer.
Thanks for the comments.
Sure I could do heaps better than this - just a quick image to pass the time this one. Didn't even use ext power on camera! Moon was really bright too!
Doug

ps...Liveview on 40D made focusing easy, brighter stars in cluster standing out well in LCD window.

[RB (Andrew)]

Gorgeous shot Doug!
Especially since the moon was up and you only did a quick capture.

The background looks good too considering the short subs.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by RB

Gorgeous shot Doug!
Especially since the moon was up and you only did a quick capture.

The background looks good too considering the short subs.

Thanks - managed to keep histogram unclipped, surprised as scope was bathed in moonlight for all 20 subs! I thought I was wasting my time!
Cheers
Doug

[EzyStyles (Eric)]

very pretty doug, nice colours also.

[Dennis]

What a gorgeous image - well done Doug.

Cheers

Dennis

[RB (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by dugnsuz

Thanks - managed to keep histogram unclipped...

The histogram is very slightly clipped in the shadows but not so bad that it yields a harsh background.
Ideally you want a curve that starts from zero on the left in all three channels.

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by RB

The histogram is very slightly clipped in the shadows but not so bad that it yields a harsh background.
Ideally you want a curve that starts from zero on the left in all three channels.

Cheers Andrew
Doug

[Garyh]

Very nice Doug! great colors
So many stars for 30sec subs.
Well done!

[leon]

Hmmm. Doug that is a beauty, I actually did that one two nights ago, it was so bloody hot, the noise was horrid, bring on the frosts I reckon,

Leon

[Tamtarn]

That's come up really good Doug.

With the moon out and short unguided subs, imagine what the result will be under better conditions.

[Alchemy (Clive)]

bold move under a bright moon.... paid off too.

[Ric]

Lovely image Doug, well captured.

The spikes set it very micely

Cheers

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by Ric

Lovely image Doug, well captured.

The spikes set it very micely

Cheers

Thanks mate,
You express youself 'micely' too
Doug

[Starkler (Geoff)]

Thats a beauty Doug!

I still say that AP cant match the visual beauty of clusters but this one comes closer than most

[Ric]

Whoops

[coldspace]

You can see why they call it the Jewel Box, nice pretty shot.

Matt

[dugnsuz (Doug)]

Originally Posted by Starkler

Thats a beauty Doug!

I still say that AP cant match the visual beauty of clusters but this one comes closer than most

Thanks a lot Geoff, praise indeed!!
As an APer, I'm always striving for the WOW factor you visual guys get at the EP of large scopes.
Doug